Taking on Twins (14 page)

When he'd sold the window, he approached another customer that Annie was now too busy to take on. “Hi. Whaddya need? We've got it.”

“I don't know what I'm looking for, actually,” the befuddled woman said. “I need a little something or other for this corner in my dining room and I thought about putting a hat rack or something…I don't know.”

“A hat rack? Tacky.”

“Tacky?”

Annie moaned.

“Trust me. You don't want a hat rack. Come here. You have to see this really cool Victrola that comes with an assortment of ancient records.”

When he'd sold the Victrola, he went on to sell two of
Annie's paintings, a settee, a pair of really old oak and wrought iron school desks and a hurricane lamp. All before noon.

Annie sighed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes as she checked that morning's totals. “Wow, this was a bell-ringer day,” she murmured. “The totals are more than twice my average.”

“So. Do I get the job?”

She glanced up. “Are you applying?”

“You never know.”

Her dimples bloomed as she glanced up at the ceiling. “Well, I don't agree with all of your sales tactics, but I guess I have to say you sell circles around me.”

“Aww, shucks, ma'am. Yer just sayin' that.”

“You ever think about leaving law and going into sales?”

“Sometimes.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Their gazes locked and held for a long, electric moment, and Wyatt wished he knew what she was thinking.

“Not antique sales,” she hedged, flustered. “You know, any kind of sales. You'd be good at anything you set your mind to.”

“I know what you're trying to say. And thank you.” Again, they stood and simply smiled at each other.

Outside, the noon whistle sounded down at the Keyhole fire station.

“I have to go get the boys. Want to come?”

“Yes. Put up the Gone Fishing sign. I'm taking you guys on a picnic.”

“Wyatt, I can't just up and close the store.”

“Why not? You made twice as much money as usual this morning, you said so yourself.”

“Yes, but—”

“No buts. I'll come back this afternoon and help you make another killing.”

“H
igher!” Noah squealed. Head back, mouth wide open and filled with laughter, he hung on for dear life as Wyatt pulled the boy's swing back over his head and allowed him to hover.

“I can't hold you any higher than this,” Wyatt protested. “I'd need a ladder.”

“Then go get a ladder!” Noah dangled backward and giggled like a loon.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes!” Noah shrieked.

Wyatt released the swing and Noah flew. Excited, Chopper barked and wagged his tail.

“Weeee ahhh ha ha haaaaaaaa!”

Noah laughed so hard, Annie feared he'd fall. Although, she could hardly interfere. For the last four hours, her boys had giggled and laughed and squealed with the unmitigated joy of children who'd discovered Disneyland personified.
Wyatt wrestled them, swung them, pushed them, chased them, galloped them around the small delightful, tree-filled park in Keyhole's town square, and gave them his undivided attention.

And she'd never seen them happier. She'd never seen Chopper happier, for that matter.

“My turn, my turn!” Alex flung his arms around Wyatt's waist and tugged. “I want to swing, Wyatt. Please?”

“Just a minute, spaceman. You just had a long turn. It's your brother's turn.”

“But he's already been up there forever.”

“Spacemen don't whine, buddy.”

Alex laughed and waved his arms at his mother. “Mom! Come here and push me. We'll race these guys.”

Annie shook her head. “Alex, you've had your turn. As soon as Noah's turn is over, I want you guys to let Wyatt rest for a while. You guys can push each other. He's tired.”

“No he's not, Mom. He wants to play with us.” Alex looked up at Wyatt. “Doncha, Wyatt?”

“Yep. I love to play with you guys, but we have to obey your mother.”

“You don't have to obey her. You're a grown-up.”

Wyatt winked at the child, then shifted his gaze over to Annie and grinned. “Alex old man, one of these days you're going to learn that all us guys have to obey the girls. That's life.”

“Awh.”

Amid much protest, Wyatt managed to extricate himself from the boys and the dog and make it back to the picnic table where Annie waited with an ice-cold glass of milk and a tin of home-baked cookies.

“Tired?” Annie reached out and gave his arm a squeeze. Wyatt looked as if he'd met his match in her sons.

“Umm.” Wyatt flopped down on the bench and mopped
his brow with a napkin. “Pooped. Those guys wear me out.”

“I know. I just wish I had half their energy. I could run the world.”

“You already do, trust me.”

They smiled at each other, the way parents smile when they've spent the day enjoying their children. She sat down next to him as he dug into the pie and a sense of serenity washed over her that she hadn't felt since she used to lie in the Memorial Union Quad with Wyatt and pretend to study biology while she actually studied his body and dreamed about their future together.

A future filled with love and laughter and their children. A future not unlike today. Only in this fantasy, Wyatt stayed.

The noon hour hand come and gone long ago and Annie had ignored the inner voice that urged her back to work. Wyatt was right. The store would still be there when she got back.

But Wyatt wouldn't.

Not after this week, anyway. And, even if he came back after the wedding, which Annie highly doubted, he would eventually have to leave Keyhole. Go back to being a mover and shaker in the nation's capital. The boys needed this time with him. She would have the rest of her life to run the store. She only had the rest of the week to spend with Wyatt.

The thought made her melancholy and she stared off through the trees. Behind the rugged, snow-tipped mountain peaks that surrounded Keyhole, the sky was a deep, cloudless blue. Over the western horizon the sun hovered high, but it wouldn't be long before it began its nightly descent. In the shade, the temperature was already growing cool.

Annie glanced at her watch. There were only a few hours of daylight left. By the time she got the kids home, bathed and fed, and helped them clean up after the tornado that had touched down in their room that morning, it would be bedtime. Wyatt had promised to read to them tonight after he checked on his sister and made sure that she was home, safe and sound.

Annie rested her chin in her hands and watched him as he ate. She couldn't help but notice that he was unusually adamant about Emma's safety. It was odd. Especially here in Keyhole, where the crime rate was practically zero. Something was going on there, Annie guessed and, when they had a few uninterrupted moments together, she was going to come out and ask.

The little lines at the corners of Wyatt's eyes forked as he sensed her staring. Angling his head, he gave her a smile that had her palms suddenly clammy.

The years had been very, very kind to Wyatt. He was far better-looking now, in his thirties, than he'd ever been in his early twenties. He'd been such a cute boy, but now he was a man. Everything about him screamed power. Position. Self-assurance. Sex appeal.

Annie swallowed.

“Penny for your thoughts,” he murmured in that silky voice she remembered from a long ago night under the trees next to the campus library.

“Me? My thoughts?”

“Mm. I'm sure they're much more interesting, not to mention less exhausting than their thoughts.” He pointed at the boys who were hanging by their knees from the monkey bars.

“No comment.” Annie laughed.

He arched a brow and studied her from beneath lazily
hooded eyes. “That's interesting. So you have some thoughts about wearing me out?”

“I thought after all the furniture I made you move the other night that you'd run screaming.”

“That's not what I'm talking about.”

“I know what you're talking about.”

“What am I talking about?”

“You know.” Annie felt the laughter well.

His grin began at one corner of his mouth and slowly spread to the other. “No, I don't.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don't.”

“Yes. You do.”

“Kiss me.” Wyatt pushed his plate away and turned to face her on the bench.

“See. You know.”

“Are you gonna kiss me?”

“Here? In front of the boys?”

“I doubt that it'll traumatize them too badly.”

“But what if someone sees us?”

“So what?”

“Well, I—”

“Would you shut up and kiss me?”

Annie inched forward on the bench and slid her arms up over his chest and around his neck. “Mm-hmm.” She sighed and settled her mouth against his and filled her fingers with the hair that curled at his nape. Her heart picked up speed and her whole body began to pulse. To come alive. To sing.

When she was with Wyatt like this, it was as if the rest of the world just dropped away, leaving the two of them completely alone to drown in the very essence of each other.

Or not.

“Eeeeew! Mush! Yuck! Look, Alex, they're kissin'!”

“Yech!”

Making tremendous gagging noises, the boys ran up and tugged on their clothing. Wyatt ignored them, and refused to release Annie.

“Blach!” Alex yelled.

“Gross!” Noah shouted.

Annie could feel Wyatt's smile against her mouth.

He pulled back just a fraction and scowled at the boys. “If you guys don't back off, I'm gonna kiss you next.”

That was all it took for the boys to bolt, screaming and howling with laughter as they went.

 

“Scuse me, but what the hayell do you think you're doin'?”

Snake Eyes started. “Uh, hiya.” After a deep drag on his cigarette to regain his composure, he scrambled down the ladder he'd been using to peer into Emily's cottage and backed onto the sidewalk.

He bared his teeth in a false-smile at the bathrobe-and-slipper-clad woman who stood on the front porch next door. Pink sponge curlers sprouted from her head like Medusa's snakes and her frown was feral. Like owner, like dog, the animal in her arms was also frowning.

Fifi. The dog struggled in her arms and growled, as if he remembered their tussle in the blackberry bushes the other night.

“Is the landlord here?” Snake Eyes improvised.

“Who the hayell wants to know?” the woman shouted, reminding Snake Eyes of his mother. Fifi barked and snapped, also reminding him of his mother.

His pulse went thready and he began to sweat. He was five years old all over again, and in trouble.

“I—I—I'm here to clean the gutters.” He pulled out a
credit card receipt from last night's debauchery at the all-night saloon on Main Street and held it out. “I got a work order here, says this place got a gutter leak.”

The woman cackled and shook her head. “What the hayell?”

Snake Eyes froze. She was onto his scheme. He considered bolting, but knew that, in his condition, he wouldn't get to the end of the sidewalk before he passed out. Then he considered shutting her up with physical force, but the dog scared the pea-waddin' out of him.

Much to his surprise, she turned and, with a dismissive wave of her hand, shuffled back into her apartment.

“You go 'head and fix the gutters and then you tell that jerk Simmons to get his butt out here and fix the damn roof. I never heard of anything so bass-akwards in all my born days. Fixin' the damned gutters while the roof leaks like a bloody sieve.”

Fifi growled and snapped as his owner slammed the door behind her.

Snake Eyes breathed a sigh of relief and crammed his credit card receipt into his pocket. That had been just a hair too close for comfort.

He needed to get inside and out of sight. He glanced at his watch.

Five-thirty. He was early. She wouldn't be home till seven, which gave him plenty of time to prep for the job. There were bushes by the door that would shield him as he picked the locks on her front door. He'd let himself in and make a sandwich. After all, killing on an empty stomach had never been his bag.

 

Wyatt helped Annie unload the boys and their stuff and the trunk full of groceries they'd shopped for on the way home from the park. Traipsing back and forth between the
car and the house, they soon had it all carted inside. When Annie flipped on the kitchen lights, the shadows fell away and a cluttered warmth filled Wyatt with a feeling of rightness. Of belonging. Funny how he'd been here in Keyhole for less than a week but already felt more at home here in Wyoming than he had in all the years he'd lived in Washington, D.C.

“Mom, I'm thirsty.”

“Me too, Mom.”

“My hands are full. Ask Wyatt.”

“Wyatt, I'm thirsty.”

“Me too, Wyatt.”

As the boys and dog bobbed about underfoot, Annie glanced at him and it was almost as if she'd reached out and touched him, so great was his awareness of her lately. He could tell the feeling was mutual as their gazes connected and held over the heads of her boys.

“There's ice water in the fridge,” she told him and inclined her head in that direction.

The boys pointed out the sippy cups and he awkwardly fixed them drinks. Then, he refilled Chopper's water bowl.

“Thank you,” Annie murmured, brushing by him, catching his eye, smiling meaningfully and setting him on fire. “Can you stay for dinner? I'm making spaghetti and meat-balls.”

“Spaghetti? Yuck!” Alex clutched at his throat.

Exasperated, Annie shifted her gaze down to her son. “What are you talking about? You love spaghetti.”

“I hate it!”

Wyatt palmed the child's head as if it were a basketball and waggled it back and forth. “All the more for me, then, I guess. Plus, if I eat all my dinner, I bet I'll be able to really chase you. And catch you.”

“Nuh-uh!” Alex's laughter rang out as he threw his
arms and legs around Wyatt's legs and hung on for dear life. “I'm eating
all
the spaghetti!”

“Alex, get off him.” To Wyatt she said, “I take it this means you'll stay for dinner.”

“I'd love to. Give me an hour or two to run back to the hotel for a shower. While I'm there I want to check my messages and make sure that Emma made it home safely.”

“Oh.” Her brows knit thoughtfully.

As Wyatt peeled the giggling Alex off his legs and set to stowing milk and eggs into the refrigerator, he could tell that Annie wondered why he would even question Emily's safety. By the curiosity behind her eyes, he knew she was brimming with dozens of unasked questions. Questions that he couldn't answer. Not yet. Though he longed to tell her the truth and knew he could trust her with his life, at this point he felt that keeping her in the dark on this subject was safer for all involved.

“Okay.” Arms loaded with salad makings, Annie gave a little shrug and glanced at the clock. “That'll give me plenty of time to get dinner ready and bake a pie too. You can be here by seven-thirty?”

“I get to sit by Wyatt!” Noah shouted.

“Me too!” Alex jostled in front of his brother.

“Sure. I can be here by seven-thirty.” He shut the refrigerator door and in two steps was standing behind Annie, arms around her waist, chin resting on her shoulder. “On the dot.”

“Are you gonna kiss my mom again?” Alex wondered.

“Blach.” Noah clutched his throat.

Wyatt could feel the heat rise in Annie's cheeks and couldn't hold back his amusement. “Do you guys think I should?”

Giggling, Alex and Noah whispered to each other, jostling and peeping up at the adults.

“Well?” Wyatt wondered.

“Yes,” the boys shouted, punch drunk with hilarity. “She
likes
it!”

“Is that true?” Wyatt murmured against her ear.

Annie sighed and leaning back, relaxed into his embrace. “Busted.”